I do love Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield so I had planned on seeing this movie after seeing a trailer for it. However, the title was not recognizable so as I was looking at the Cinemark movie list this week, I almost missed it. I saw the title and thought, “What is that?”

After seeing the movie poster, I realized that this was the Pugh-Garfield film, and I knew I wanted to go to it.

According to IMDB, “Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) are brought together in a surprise encounter that changes their lives. Through snapshots of their life together — falling for each other, building a home, becoming a family — a difficult truth is revealed that rocks its foundation. As they embark on a path challenged by the limits of time, they learn to cherish each moment of the unconventional route their love story has taken, in filmmaker John Crowley’s decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.”

Starting off, the film’s narrative structure is told in a non-linear manner. It was as if time is not a line, but a flat plane. The film leapt around from all parts of this relationship, from where they meet to where they are giving birth. It did make following the story a little challenging for awhile until Florence Pugh cut her hair (thanks, Florence!)

The chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh was absolutely off the chart and this is the main reason this movie worked as well as it did. Both showed their acting chops in these roles and I loved them together. Every scene with them in it was wonderful.

The story was very emotional at several times and it worked well. The melodrama of the film was over-the-top at times, but it worked because of Garfield and Pugh. Perhaps the time jump storytelling technique kept the emotion in check.

This was a solid film with great performances.

4 stars